To Think About

If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily. ~Gerald Good

Monday, January 10, 2011

Day 1: 11 January 2011

About 4 years ago when my husband's depression got pretty bad, we sought the help of a professional. She told us that people suffering from depression find it difficult to compartmentalise their life - if they had a rotten day at work, then that feeling applied to their whole life - their marriage was rotten, they didn't like their house nor the way they looked etc.This rang true for my perceptions of how my husband was treating life.
The psychologist suggested a night time ritual where before we went to sleep, we should think of 3 things for which we were grateful for that day.
Now I don't know about my husband - I'm sorry to say that we separated 3 years ago, but I've been doing this nightly ritual every night for the last 4 years and I've found it to be a real eye opener about what's really important in my life.
The other day I was in a shop and saw a 'Gratitude Journal' - a bound book that provided the space to record these daily thoughts on paper and I thought about not buying it but of making my own - putting a bit of creativity into the exercise - but in the wee small hours of last night I had the thought to record my daily gratitudes on a blog, because if just one person who is feeling low reads this and puts it into practice and feels better about things, then that's a much better idea than keeping my ideas to myself.
Now I don't suffer from depression but I have my low times of course. I am not presuming to know really what it feels like to suffer day after day, so please don't take offence. If you want to share here what you're going through that would be fine, and I'm going to keep sharing the 3 things for which I'm grateful for every day...